Debunked. Sure. Where are all the great Witherspoon wins and lets look at ko's against the best guys he fought. Tillis. Bruno. Next would be who? Anyone else out there capable of beating Tillis or Bruno? I just don't buy into the witherspoon was great thing. No better or no worse than the rest of the guys around. It's the lack of A+ results that's the problem. Even when he was in top shape. going 12 with smith in a fight he dominates a-z. The Snipes fight. Holmes, looks good and maybe the best fight of his career. But he did not win it. Sometimes a guy has to sieze an opportunity. Or try being in better condition and better prepared for his fights. It was a major weakness in his game. I think it rears its head once again in a fight w/ a former 175 pounder and southpaw. He'd under prepare. Tim would consider the guy on par with a frans botha type guy and would be fortunate to be at 75%. What MM brings to the match is a southpaw style. Just how many southpaws on that Witherspoon opponent list? And Moorer threw oddball punches that the heavies just were not used to seeing and it made him effective in there. A right hook from a southpaw. Uppercuts from both hands. His punches were straight as an arrow and he had the best accuracy of any heavy I ever saw. When he lets those punches go, he doesn't miss.And a championship pedigree from being in a lot of title bouts. Lots of championship rounds and undefeated up until George. To me it's a bad style match for Witherspoon and I don't see that looping right hand launched way on the outside landing much. Take that away, and what is there? A left hook? He gets outhustled and out landed. It is not a matchup of heavyweight resume's or this guy did better than that guy on box-rec.
Very evenly matched, I give Witherspoon a much better chance of scoring a knock out should it go to decision I could see it either way slightly favoring Witherspoon based on him being the more powerful of the two.
If you're going to critique Witherspoon on the basis of poor winning performances or lack of KO wins over top opponents then you might want to note that Fran's Botha was likely the best fighter Moorer ever stopped.. That fight was a 12 round TKO over a man with fringe level ability and in a contest that was otherwise on even terms in the closing moments of the match. Moorer also came within a heart beat of losing to Bert Cooper - another fringe guy. Both Witherspoon and moorer looked like shlt against martin. Moorer got the win and spoon didn't. But neither looked any better. Difference was spoon was past it while moorer was prime and hailed as a potential next champion and got floored. Moorer having a stylistic advantage might be the only thing I'll concur with but then again he was also floored, troubled and beaten by lesser right handers than spoon. Your point about him being inconsistently in shape is valid but only describes how he was about half the time. He wasn't always unprepared for his bigger fights and there are plenty who can verify that..
On point Witherspoon stops Moorer mid to late rounds. Other versions of Witherspoon loses by decision.
Best night vs best night i go with spoon but it is hardly a walk for the park. Average vs average i go with moorer
Great fight, honestly. I lean towards Spoon at their absolute best. Those 80's heavies seemed like nightmares to the young 90's crop coming up.
